


Keep on Soaring

by JadeNightTheWriter



Series: Wings and Flyte [13]
Category: TodHunter Moon Series - Angie Sage
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Gen, Memories, Missing Scene(s), One Shot, Wings AU, ah yes the wonderful feeling of procrastination, and it just makes this whole thing sadder, dan was missing for over TWO MONTHS???, i did not know that, paper cranes, sorry spanish homework, yeah that, you know the thing with 1000 paper cranes and a wish?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:33:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27700760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JadeNightTheWriter/pseuds/JadeNightTheWriter
Summary: Cassi Todhunter Draa smiled softly, her fingers creasing the paper with careful, precise folds.“You see, Alice,” she said, pulling down the wings and adjusting the tail, “Sometimes you’ll run into things that hurt, and sometimes you won’t want to keep going.”She handed the finished paper crane to the little girl, who gasped delightedly, gazing at the little flowers speckled on the paper.“But listen to me, my little bird,” Cassi continued, scooping her daughter up to hold her. “You have to keep flying. Albatross wings like yours need to keep steady while over the ocean, so one day you can find land.”(Or, Tod looks for her father after he goes missing in PathFinder.)
Relationships: Alice Todhunter Moon & Dan Moon
Series: Wings and Flyte [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1991479
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	Keep on Soaring

**Author's Note:**

> Hehe :) (also I promise I'm working on TCC don't kill me)

_Cassi Todhunter Draa smiled softly, her fingers creasing the paper with careful, precise folds._

_“You see, Alice,” she said, pulling down the wings and adjusting the tail, “Sometimes you’ll run into things that hurt, and sometimes you won’t want to keep going.”_

_She handed the finished paper crane to the little girl, who gasped delightedly, gazing at the little flowers speckled on the paper._

_“But listen to me, my little bird,” Cassi continued, scooping her daughter up to hold her. “You have to keep flying. Albatross wings like yours need to keep steady while over the ocean, so one day you can find land.”_

_The little girl nodded, tucking herself underneath Cassi’s chin. She started to drift off almost instantly, the moment lingering in a fuzzy memory that she’d recall in restless dreams. Cassi turned to face her rocking chair in the corner._

_Paper cranes littered the low table, perching in the windowsill and hanging from the ceiling in tiny colorful strings, and arranged in little clusters of ‘families’ that had been played with and forgotten._

_“One thousand cranes for a wish,” Cassi whispered softly, turning away. “Come now Alice, let’s get you to bed.”_

* * *

Alice TodHunter Moon sat on the dunes, gazing out over the ocean. The waves were low and gentle, rolling softly up onto the beach. Not a single boat speckled on the horizon, the surface of the water smooth as glass.

Tod shut her eyes. The day was exactly like it was last week when Dan left and never came back. She didn’t want to see it.

_Keep on soaring, my little bird_.

“I’m trying, Mum.”

She sighed, opening her eyes again to watch the ocean. Nothing. Nothing but endless waves and unending water.

“Hey, Tod.”

Tod blinked, turned to face the freckled boy above her head. Oksar peered over the top of the dune, a worried frown creasing his face. 

“Nothing?”

“No,” Tod answered, shaking her head. “Nothing.”

Oskar’s frown deepened as he scrambled over the sand to sit next to her. Together they sat there and watched the waves, one after another, carrying nothing but shells and empty water.

* * *

“It’s been a _month_ and you’re not worried? I’m going to look for him! And that’s final!”

Tod slammed the door behind her, the window shutters clattering with the force. She could hear her aunt’s words ringing in her ears, like she’d said every time Tod went out to look for Dan.

_What are you going to find?_ Tod clenched her teeth, hating how the words stuck with her. She opened the window and climbed out to stand on the ledge. _His dead body, covered in sand?_

Tod flared her wings open, leaping off and catching the breeze. The wind currents caught her roughly, snatching her wings and pulling her high, high above their village, into the clouds above. She caught a draft heading towards the sea, ignoring the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes.

Wingbeats sounded behind her, and she whirled around, until she spotted the familiar sandy speckles on Oskar’s wings and relaxed.

“Tod!” he called. “Did something happen?”

“I hate her,” Tod spat. “Dad has been missing for over a month and she doesn’t even _pretend_ to care. I _hate_ her.”

“Ah,” Oksar said, in lieu of a better response. They both knew who she was talking about anyway.

“I’m going to look for Dad,” Tod said, turning her gaze back to the water. “You coming?”

“Yeah, I’ll come.”

Tod nodded and dropped to a lower current, this one sweeping close to the waves and carrying the air around the curve of the shoreline. Tod followed it, tracing the path she’d taken the day before, and the day before that, and the day before that. 

She tried not to think how many times she’d followed it.

Oskar kept pace with her easily for a while, as they looped across the water, searching for anything beside the white-tipped waves and patches of floating kelp. After half an hour though, he started to fall behind, forcing Tod to circle back and wait for him.

“I’m sorry Tod,” he panted. “I can’t keep— going.”

“It’s fine,” Tod said. His wings weren’t built for endurance anyway. “Go back. I’ll keep searching.”

“Are—” a quick breath, “are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Tod forced herself to smile. “I’ll be back soon.” 

Oskar nodded. “Okay. See you later then.”

Tod watched him fly slowly towards the land, his silhouette getting smaller and smaller, until it was no more than just a brown speck. 

_Keep on soaring, my little bird._

Tod wheeled around and beat her wings as hard as she could, flying out towards the horizon. If she kept going, maybe she could leave the village behind. Her village, empty without Dan’s stories, her house without her dad. Nothing but a cold smile and the unsympathetic _click_ of knitting needles. 

* * *

Tod flew for hours, scouring the water for nothing at all. It had been over a month after all, no clues would remain on the ocean’s surface, waiting for her to find them. His boat was probably far out at sea, carried by the waves farther than even she could fly.

She beat her wings harder, shooting up into the clouds and swooping back down, the tips of her feathers nearly grazing the waves. She and Dan used to love doing this, taking turns flying and keeping the boat steady. Tod loved to loop around the sails, flying fast and far and always, always coming back.

Tod felt something cold and wet trickle down her cheek, and brought a hand up, surprised. It came away wet and glistening, and Tod felt another tear trickle downwards.

She kept flying, letting the tears drip down her face and fall into the ocean, mixing with the endless waves.

_ Keep on soaring, my little bird. _

Tod had written her mother’s words carefully inside the hull, right next to a crane, engraved oh-so carefully and painted with the colors of Cassi’s wings. The very last one.

Cassi had nearly folded one thousand cranes when she died, and Tod and Dan spent the entire day making the remaining few. Then they’d folded the last one in gold paper—her favorite color—and burned it on the shoreline, and Tod had spent hours carving its shape into the wood.

Tod had liked to dream that the smoke reached across the ocean. Maybe it was blown where Cassi had always wanted to go, so that she’d be happy wherever she was.

Now though, Tod wondered if the ashes of the paper were at the bottom of the ocean, somewhere far below where Dan was too.

_ Keep on soaring, my little bird. _

And so she did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Complaints? Wanna yell about how we need canon development for Cassi?


End file.
